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Ballad in A

By Cathy Park Hong Read the Q & A

A Kansan plays cards, calls Marshall

a crawdad, that barb lands that rascal a slap;

that Kansan jackass scats,

camps back at caballada ranch.

Hangs kack, ax, and camp hat.

Kansan’s nag mad and rants can’t bask,

can’t bacchanal and garland a lass,

can’t at last brag can crack Law’s balls,

Kansan’s cantata rang at that ramada ranch,

Mañana, Kansan snarls, I’ll have an armada

and thwart Law’s brawn,

slam Law a damn mass war path.

Marshall’s a marksman, maps Kansan’s track,

calm as a shaman, sharp as a hawk,

Says: That dastard Kansan’s had

and gnaws lamb fatback.

At dawn, Marshall stalks that ranch,

packs a gat and blasts Kansan’s ass

and Kansan gasps, blasts back.

A flag flaps at half-mast.

Source: Poetry (April 2010).

Biography

Cathy Park Hong’s first collection, Translating Mo'um, was published in 2002 by Hanging Loose Press. Her second book, Dance Dance Revolution, was chosen for the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and will be published by W.W. Norton in 2007. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Her writing on politics and her reviews have . . .

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